


Flashbacks

by Azashenya



Series: Spice Drops and Roses [1]
Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Background Violence, Gen, LSV, Ravelry, accidental RP
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-01
Updated: 2013-12-01
Packaged: 2018-01-03 02:56:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 715
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1064926
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Azashenya/pseuds/Azashenya
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>A waitress in a cafe during the Chitauri attack in New York.  Introducing Beth.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Flashbacks

Another day at work, another day bussing tables, pouring coffees, making lattes… another day with that edge of resentment at the time that feels wasted. But she needs the money, desperately, if she is ever going to return to Julliard… while every shift that she works means hours of practicing lost and a little more of that edge gone. She refuses to admit to herself that after more than three years of this she has probably already lost to much to return to the point of her studies where she’d had to leave. More than three years of not being able to afford to pay a music teacher.

Eyes closed, jaw clenched Beth forces herself to take a deep breath and push it all away. She’s had lots of practice at doing that.

Opening her eyes Beth looks around the Brownstone Cafe. An ordinary morning with an ordinary number of customers on both two feet and four. It had been an ordinary day, much like this, when hell broke loose nearly three years ago now…

Suddenly Beth finds herself remembering.

~~~~~

She had been concentrating on using the still-unfamilar latte machine and didn’t notice the murmurs as customers headed to the windows to look out. So she had no warning before the explosions started.

Beth jumped, her throat closing, the half filled cup of latte slipped through her fingers. Swearing to herself Beth grabbed the towel to wipe the spilled coffee as she looked up.

The inside customers were all standing by the windows looking up and the outside ones were scattering. The dogs barked.

“What the fuck?” Beth muttered to herself.

More explosions that shuddered through the buildings and flashes of fireballs in the distance.

Beth took a deep breath as a lifetime of hurricane training kicked in with an odd feeling of calm. This may not be a hurricane but from what she could hear outside she wanted to be out in that about as much as she wanted to be out in a hurricane. First, find shelter… and take care of the customers.

“Get away from the windows!“ Beth yelled.

Some of the customers turned to look at her blankly. Beth gritted her teeth against the string of expletives she wanted to throw at them, that wouldn’t help. She took a deep breath and crossed the room to start persuading people to move.

She managed to get a mother with two small children out back to the staff break room, then another person, then another. When she ran out of space in the break room she put them in the kitchen, with a hurried explanation to the cook to keep him calm. Eventually she got enough of them moving that the rest noticed and followed.

People were getting frightened.

Beth checked with the cook before grabbing the other on-shift waitresses to gather up clean cups, pots of coffee while the cook got out all of the ready to eat food in the kitchens.

With free drinks and food to distract them Beth and her team (all of whom are senior employees to her, but no one is complaining) managed to keep the customers quiet, contained and safe until the firemen and police came through to evacuate them.

Once they had all been safely led down into the subways and away Beth found a quiet corner to collapse into and have her own, personal, quiet breakdown. She tried really really hard not to worry about her tiny apartment full of precious instruments. When she did, finally, get to go home she broke down again in relief to find them all safe. Curling up on her bed she clung to her Gramma viola (in its case) like it was a giant teddy bear and she cried from stress and relief.

~~~~~

Beth shakes her head, trying to banish the too-vivid memories. She leans against the counter for a moment, scrubbing at her eyes with the heel of her hand. She feels in desperate need of a break but her shift has just started and the lunch rush is due to begin. So instead she closes her eyes for a moment, takes a deep breath and calls to mind a Bach concerto to wash the memories away.  
With her mind full of music she does her job.


End file.
